Gympact: Work Out or Pay the Price

With the month of January there comes a New Year and also a bunch of New Year’s resolutions. These resolutions often just fall out of order and people will usually give up within just a few weeks of starting the resolution. One of the most common resolutions is to lose weight or just visit the gym more often. This is also the most common one that people break and give up on. Here to help remedy that lack of commitment is a new app and startup called Gympact.

Gympact is an app that focuses more on punishment rather than reward. A user sets the number of times a week that they want to the gym. They then set how much they are willing to pay should they not meet that threshold. If they don’t meet it then they lose the money, but if they do complete their goal then they get a portion of the money from those who did not complete their goal. Gympact then makes 3% on this transaction, which is how they make their money.

The app uses a check in system for users to prove that they indeed went to the gym. This potentially opens the door to cheaters who might show up, check in, and then just leave without actually doing a workout. The developers tackled this by making the check in count only if the user stayed at the location for at least 30 minutes. Although they may stay at the gym for 30 minutes you can’t really assume they are exercising, but if they are willing to stay that long for a check in, it only makes sense that they go through a workout.

The app also has potential to form relationships with individual gyms, who could possibly offer their own system through the app where they reward visitors with discounts if they are meeting their weekly quota. The only real thing holding this app back is that it doesn’t address the idea of a home gym. What if I want to go running around my neighborhood or have some dumbbells in my basement? At the moment Gympact can’t really provide for you in that situation, but since it is mobile technology, tracking outdoor activity such as running could definitely be on the table in the future.